In this preview of the show's 21st season, the perpetrators of the Charlottesville riots are in the crosshairs

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September 12, 2017 6:52PM (UTC)

Yes, it's time for another season of Comedy Central's "South Park" — its 21st! — and thus time to watch creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone pull their subjects straight from the headlines and melt them under their withering gaze. The first episode for the season, which kicks off this Wednesday at 10 p.m., takes on — what else? — the Confederate battle flag-waving, tiki torch-sporting know-nothings of the white supremacist movement. You're welcome.

For those familiar with the series, the premiere episode — "White People Building Houses" — takes the familiar "They terk 'er jerbs" crowd and elides them with the pungent vitriol of the white nationalist movement that became both highly visible and tragically deadly in Charlottesville, Virginia, last month. While we don't have a full synopsis of the episode — or even a full trailer — we do have a short description from Comedy Central that reads, "Protestors armed with tiki torches and confederate flags take to the streets of South Park. Randy comes to grips with what it means to be white in today’s society." Solid.

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Take a whiff below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=10&v=bAon04ZJhHE

The verisimilitude is chilling, no?

Satirization of Confederate "Lost Cause" worship is actually not new territory for Parker and Stone. In the 2000 season 4 episode, "Chef Goes Nanners," the boys and Chef fought to replace the old, honored town flag with a newer, more inclusive symbol. While not the Stars and Bars, the South Park flag did depict four white stickmen hanging a black one. Subtlety has never been a feature on "South Park."

How very topical.

Let's see how the boys and the town fares with the new resurgence of white nationalism when the show comes back this Wednesday at 10 p.m.

Gabriel Bell

Gabriel Bell is Salon's Deputy Culture Editor. Follow him on Twitter at @GabrielJBell